Your Catfish Wishlist?

[Narelle]

I always have a bit of a running list of fish I'd like to keep in the back of my mind, and I'm sure I can't be the only one. There are too many fish out there to list them all, but if you had to pick a top 10, which cats would make it? It doesn't necessarily have to be realistic - feel free to include species that are endangered or that are never seen in the trade.

For me:

• 1.
  Nanobagrus armatus
  
  2.
  Leiocassis micropogon
  
  3.
  Nanobagrus fuscus
  
  4.
  Bagroides melapterus
  
  5.
  Hemibagrus hoevenii
  
  6.
  Tachysurus spilotus
  
  7.
  Clarias
  
  8.
  Noturus gladiator
  
  9.
  Mystus leucophasis
  
  10.
  Kryptopterus vitreolus

(Clearly I have a type!)

I always have a few actual running lists, so it was just a matter of combining and narrowing it down to make this. I thought it'd be quick and easy, but it was still tougher than I expected! I had to pick a top 19 and narrow it down from there. A funny thing with this list too - the order is not necessarily the order I'd snatch them up, due to space. As much as I'd love to keep Leiocassis micropogon, I don't have the space right now, so I'd sooner bring home Tachysurus spilotus if I got the chance. But if space weren't an issue, I'd get them in this order.

One of my favorite things is making these lists and getting to cross fish off. As my interests lean towards rarer and rarer fish it's getting less likely that I'll get to do that, but I got to knock

Hyalobagrus flavus

off my list this past fall! (Previously #2 on the list!)

[bekateen]

My signature says it all. But as you said, even it isn't complete. I'll probably add a couple more plecos and corys to it. E.g.,

Hypancistrus debilittera

and for sure several more

Panaqolus

.

Cheers, Eric

[Lycosid]

What I like about catfish is that within one order of fishes there is such incredible diversity and so my wishlist (assuming infinite money, tank space, etc) would include some of the weirder morphologies -

Farlowella

and

Chaca chaca

probably top that list. I already have

Kryptopterus vitreolus

and

Malapterurus electricus

which are certainly both weird in their own ways. Weird reproductive strategies like the mouth-brooder parasitism of

Synodontis multipunctatus

or bubble nesting in some of the

Hoplosternum

species is also interesting. Given my interest in predation something like

Wallago attu

would be fun too. Oh, and of course some parasitic trichomycterid would check off at least two weirdness boxes.

[synolover]

Synodontis brichardi, microsynodontis sp 1, corydoras hastatus, brachysynodontis batensoda, panaqolus albivermis, baryancistrus beggini, L128, mystus, rama chandramara